1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system and method for providing information, an electronic mailing system and method for exchanging electronic mails, a parts check list preparing system and method for preparing a parts check list, an information storing system and method for storing information, and a computer program for executing those methods (medium for recording the program).
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of products have been produced, marketed, purchased and consumed. Generally, products are manufactured by manufacturers, marketed by retailers, and transported to users for consumption.
Heavy construction machines such as wheel loaders or bulldozers require replacement of parts for the fixation of disorders or as a result of the periodic inspection, and in response to such a demand, the parts are provided to the users by the same routes through which the products are provided.
The user, for ensuring the stable supply of necessary parts for the maintenance works including inspection, must obtain the information of the parts retained by the manufacturer. Conventionally, the retailer makes a list of parts in the form of paper sheets available for the user's inspection. Thus, if the user wants to get necessary parts, he must mainly resort to a communication means based on paper sheets such as order forms.
Recently, as computers and networks such as Internet spread widely among people, the manufacturers open their web sites to make the information of their products available to general public, thereby advertising those products. Communication based on electronic mails is also widely utilized: the user or the retailer contacts through electronic mails the manufacturer for questioning or consultation, or for ordering parts.
Provision of information from the manufacturer through the web site or through electronic mails, however, has a number of problems as described below
For the smooth distribution of information or execution of on-line ordering, it is necessary to convert parts lists which are conventionally printed on paper sheets into electronic data, so that they may be stored and retrieved at any desired time. To achieve this, a number of problems as described below must be overcome.
[Providing Information]
Recently, companies avidly open their home pages (sites identified by URLs (Uniformed Resource Locator)) on Internet using WWW (World Wide Web) system, to distribute therewith the information of the goods they deal. It is also possible for the user to obtain the information of various products using his network terminal. Moreover, the site specialized in providing information introduces users to the home-pages of multiple enterprises (companies) that are dealing with the same products. Thus, the user can easily and quickly obtain the information of his desired products by gaining access to the home-pages of the manufacturers of those products.
However, because the home-page of a company is accessible to anyone that can use a terminal connected to the same network, the information provided by the company through its home-page must be kept at such a level as to barely satisfy the demand of general customers, and, so it is said, does not stay at a level sufficiently high to satisfy the customers more closely connected with the company.
Further, there are cases where a customer of the company has his own customers. Assume, for example, the company represents a manufacturer of a certain product; an agent assigned the sale of the product a direct customer of the company; and an end user or the user of the product a direct customer of the agent.
In this case, if the end user wants to obtain the information of the product from the manufacturer, it is customary for the user to visit the agent for the information. This is because, although it is possible for the user to gain access to the home-page of the manufacture on Internet, the information he might get from the home-page has limitations.
As is well known, there are information providing systems (services) which provide the subscribers with necessary information via a network. In this system, the information provider provides only his licensed members with detailed information. If a manufacturer constructs such a system, and its agents and the end-users connected with the agents are recognized as licensed members, it will be possible for the user or the member to obtain necessary and detailed information via the system.
Even in such an information providing system restricted to licensed members, it often occurs that the manufacturer or the information provider can not readily determine whether or not a given member is sufficiently qualified to be given intimate information of its products, because license may be given to the end-users that are not its direct customers. This is particularly important when license transaction is carried out between the license-giver and the license-receiver via terminals connected to a network, and when the license-giver can not quickly determine whether or not the license applicant is sufficiently qualified for the license.
The end user may gain access to the agent he directly deals with, and obtain the information of the manufacturer kept by that agent. However, to meet the demand of the end-user through such a route, the agent must construct a database with a vast content which will require considerable maintenance works and a great financial cost from the agent.
The object of this invention is to present an information providing system whereby the information provider can easily and securely provide a specific user with the detailed information the user seeks without requiring a great cost, a method for providing information, and a computer program (medium for recording the program) executing the information providing method.
[Electronic Mail]
Recently the electronic mailing system is avidly utilized whereby it is possible for different computer terminals connected via a network to exchange electronic mails. Such electronic mailing systems are used in a wide variety of fields for various purposes.
Let's consider how such an electronic mailing system is utilized by the people involved in the trade of construction machines. If a user finds his wheel loader or bulldozer is out of order because of the failure of certain parts, the retailer who sold the machine to the user confirms the failure, and informs the manufacturer of the failure via an electronic mail. The electronic mail transmitted from the terminal of the retailer is instantly received by the terminal of the manufacturer, which makes it possible for the manufacturer to quickly take a proper action according to the information conveyed by the mail.
However, in many cases, the electronic mail conveys information only in the form of texts, and hence the information it conveys about the failure or the situation causing the failure is not always sufficiently accurate and detailed, which may, in certain cases, cause a retarded response.
To meet this, if the information provider supplements the electronic mail with an image file carrying a drawing of the failed parts or a photo representing the failure, exchange of information based on images as well as on texts will be possible, whenever the information receiver opens this file. Through this means it will be possible for the information receiver to grasp the information more accurately by referring to the image file than would be possible if he was solely dependent on the text file.
However, because preparation of such an image file is generally performed using a dedicated software package different from the mailing software used for preparation of electronic mails, to prepare such an image file, the user must boot up such application software before he starts editing a necessary image, which will complicate the procedures, and require more labor and time than would be possible if he was solely dependent on the mailing software.
Moreover, if the information receiver's terminal did not install the same application software, he could not open the image file even if he receives the file. Thus, this mode of communication is not universally applicable.
Furthermore, such an image file contains a large quantity of data, and requires a considerable time for transmission.
The object of this invention is to provide an electronic mailing system sufficiently widely applicable whereby it is possible to easily process an image pasted to an electronic mail, and to quickly transmit such a mail in a short time, a method for transmitting/receiving electronic mails, and a computer program (medium for recording the program) for executing the method for transmitting/receiving electronic mails.
[Parts Check List]
The user of a wheel loader or a bulldozer, if he needs to replace failed parts causing a disorder or identified during periodic inspection, must purchase new parts from the retailer dealing with such construction machines. Before he buys the necessary parts, he will contact the retailer selling such construction machines to send him an estimation of the cost of the parts. When the retailer receives a request from the user for an estimation of the cost of the parts, she checks the parts stored in her warehouse or in the warehouse of the manufacturer, and the unit prices of those parts, prepares an estimation, and sends it to the user. Later, the user, based on the estimation, sends an order to the retailer.
According to certain circumstances, the user may purchase the parts directly from the manufacturer. In such cases, however, before he buys the parts, the user will usually ask the manufacturer to send him an estimation of the cost of those parts.
The request form sent by the user for estimation of the availability and cost of necessary parts usually consists of a request supplemented with a list of necessary parts, or a list of necessary parts arranged to take a request form. This parts list describes the information of necessary parts including their names, their product numbers, and required numbers.
However, to prepare such a parts list, it is necessary to locate the necessary parts in voluminous documents such as parts catalogues, and to identify their names and product numbers. This work requires much labor and time.
Moreover, the construction machine usually occurs in many different models, and each of the models is composed of a vast number of parts. Therefore, two apparently similar machines may have different model numbers, while two apparently different machines may have similar model numbers. Moreover, as the model number usually occurs as a multiple order number, the scriber may wrongly read the number, or wrongly write the number when she copies the number in the parts list.
Such problems as described above in relation to the purchase of the parts of construction machines are not limited to those construction machines. The same problems may be encountered in the trading of widely different merchandise such as machines and instruments in other fields, automobiles, houses, leisure goods, and goods required for everyday life.
The object of this invention is to provide a parts list preparing system whereby it is possible to quickly and accurately prepare a parts list.
[Storing Information]
Recently, people in such fields as machine designing, building designing and circuit designing prepare designs using a CAD system. The design prepared by the use of such a CAD system occurs as digital data, and is stored as such. Thus, it is not stored as paper sheets, and will not require cost of paper and printing, and space for storage.
However, if a design is prepared with conventional means other than the CAD system, it is necessary to store it in the form of paper sheets which requires a cost for management. The design may be stored in a micro-film to reduce the space required for its storage, but as it does not occur as digital data, saving the cost required for its management by such means will meet a limitation.
During the preparation of an assemblage drawing of a product, it may sometimes become necessary to prepare, in addition to a drawing, a separate paper sheet on which a list of necessary parts is described. In such a case, the parts list is added to the assemblage drawing, which will cause consumption of paper sheets to increase, and their management cost to rise.
Moreover, as the data in the assemblage drawing and the data in the parts list relate with each other, their management must be devised so as to maintain the interrelation, which will require an extra labor and cost. This also applies to the case where an assemblage drawing of a product is prepared in conjunction with a parts list by the use of a CAD system. Thus, if a data file conveying the assemblage drawing of a product is not managed in close association with its accessory file conveying the parts list, the operation at the terminal based on the CAD system will become so cumbersome that retrieval of related data from the two files will not be achieved readily.
True, currently there are systems whereby it is possible to read drawings, lists of data, and various other materials occurring as documents so as to convert them into digital data. However, even if such a system is used for the management of an assemblage drawing of a product together with its parts list, the management of those data files will be still cumbersome as long as the drawing and the parts list relate with each other, and it may sometimes impossible to instantly retrieve related data from the drawing and the parts list.
The object of this invention is to provide an information storing system whereby it is possible to greatly reduce the cost required for the management of data printed on paper sheets by converting them into digital data, and to easily retrieve image data and character data related with each other in combination or independently of each other, and a method for storing information.